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[D233]Developing A Strategic Plan

by Graeme Nichol, Gra

I have thought about this time and again meeting and working with executives who have taken on new roles in their organization or taken on a new role in another organization. They plan. They spend hours and days planning. They plan with others and they plan on their own. They plan the business from top to bottom. Then they unleash the behemoth on the company. We wont go into the success or otherwise of this exercise today.

The one thing they dont consider is planning for themselves. Planning their lives. Now I am not a life coach or therapist but youd think that some where along the way they would have figured out they needed a plan for their own actions. I say actions because a plan is pretty useless unless its acted on. People often have goals. Woopee. Setting goals has become the thing to do in business today. People will sell you courses on setting goals. People will coach you in setting goals. HR folks chase you down until youve filled in their form, decided on a set of goals and had them signed off.

Wonderful. The problem with setting goals for a person is there is often no basis on what to set goals for. OK lose weight, increase my salary, win an promotion etc. Well what do you base these goals on? I have seen business coaches, trainers and HR folk giving people a form and saying give me your goals for this year. Guess what? Whatever is written down is hooey and will never do a thing for anybody. All it did was place a check mark in a box. Listed goals. Good boy, Sit.

Having said all that, its actually vital that you do in fact have goals but its the process of getting you there thats going to make the difference between a basic exercise and you actually achieving them.

So what does that mean?

Well in business strategy we may follow the time honored a SWOT analysis or Porter Analysis and budgets. We may even be more creative, who knows. The fact of the matter is there are tools and programs designed to help this. We take the top team off to a great resort spend a few days whip a plan into shape, often with the help of some expensive suited consultant. Send off to the financial guys to model, make spreadsheets that cant be interpreted but look as if some real thought went into the whole process. Jazz it up and get the Board to support it.

As professionals what do we do? What is our role in this whole caboodle? Yeah we sat through the weekend, played a few rounds of golf and swore blind this was the year we wouldd exceed all expectations. Sound familiar? Yeah no wonder HBR has articles stating corporations typically achieve between 30 and 60 percent of their planned financial results! Executives typically cannott wait to get back to their comfy corner offices and fight the fires they have become accustomed to. It is ingrained in them. That is what they think get paid for.

Nope. You are wrong. You get paid to execute the strategy. How much time do you spend on that? How do you tie that to your own goals and strategies for your life in all of this? Do you have a life in all of this?

This is actually where the rubber hits the road for executives. Most fail to recognize this. You need to look at what you are expected to do and figure out how you do it and have a life.

It is not that difficult. Just not done too often. Here is my approach.
Sit down with a pen and paper not your PC. You need to think and doodle a bit.
Ask yourself what were you really proud of achieving last year?
On the work front and non work front what was great and downright awesome?
What did you really foul up last year?
Things that youd gladly never hear about again. Gotta be a few things
So if you look at those two lists, what can you learn from them?
From the good and the bad. Yes we often learn more from our failures than successes.
List those learnings.
Be proactive, stand up for myself, voice my opinions, keep quiet until I know all the facts, etc.
Write three of them as life lessons for the way you would like to be this coming year.
Be powerful, positive, in the present and very personal.
List three values you associate yourself with having
Decide what roles you have to participate in this year.
As in be a Board member, CEO, boss, friend, mom, dad, etc
Then which is your role of prime importance for the coming year

Write three goals for each role you selected. Or more
You should have about 25 of them.
Select your top ten
Write them as SMART as you can. Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic and Time Specific (next year). This can be a topic of a whole article. Goals are usually very poorly written. Write yours up and e-mail me for some critique!
Put it all on a single page use abbreviations if necessary
Write up action plans for each. Set intermediate validation points and a time table. Check it weekly and monthly.
Go out and achieve personal; and corporate success

Sound intimidating? It should not be.

As Nike says "do it"

Success in Niche Markets requires a strategic plan for the hosting of your websites. It's becoming a common practice to have upwards of 100 sites serving a variety of interests. To easily and effectively manage a large number of sites, and to contain costs, an overall hosting strategy needs to be considered.

And, of course, there are many with a smaller number, say 10 or more sites, intending to build their "empire" to a much greater size. With a view to controlling your business, it is also important to consider future growth before the workload and cost arising (as you "just add a few more additional sites") spiral out of control.

There are two special matters to consider at the very outset: The number of sub-domains allowed and the number of domains allowed on the one account.

Using a sub-domain means that you don't have to register a domain name in the early stages of a new website. It gives you a chance to first test the demand for a particular niche before you spin it off to a fully fledged site with a registered domain name. For example, if you have a hosted website called BettysHelpfulHints.com, you could add numerous sub-domains (or additional websites) to this - if your host allows it. Thus, You would be able to create sites with compound names like GourmetRecipes.BettysHelpfulHints.com; Onlinedating.BettysHelpfulHints.com; OrganicGardening.BettysHelpfulHints.com, and so on.

Web hosts have varying requirements about the number of sub-domains allowed. Naturally, the more that you have, the more bandwidth that is used, so it's often the case that lower-fee charging hosts will limit the number of sub-domains allowed on the one account.

Once you've decided that demand justifies it, you'll start thinking about registered domain names for your individual websites. This is much more cost effective and easier to manage if it can be done with the same web host, all on the same account. However, also keep in mind the caution behind the old saying, "Don't keep all your eggs in the one basket".

So it's probably wise to consider a structure that hosts your major multiple websites with 3-4 different companies. Also consider opening a reseller account with another hosting company for small and new websites and backup. This structure offers security along with the capacity to expand.

Other key factors to consider:

1. You'll want your sites operating with as little downtime as possible, so ensure that that they have the facilities to do this. Unfortunately 99% of web hosts will claim they are online 99% of the time. Using several web hosts spreads the risk of downtime. It's highly unlikely all your sites will be down at the same time.

2. Cost isn't a major concern when you have only 1 or 2 websites. When you have 10, 50 or 100+ the monthly expense can be crippling if you don't anticipate the growth and just add sites by opening new accounts. One option, mentioned earlier, is to use a reseller hosting account for those new and small sites. This would cost only about $15 per month. Sub-domains are also a possibility, with no additional cost if the web host will allow it. If you reach the stage of needing a dedicated server, this will cost upwards of $50 per month.

3. If your site development is likely to affect a production hosting site, carry out development and testing work on your reseller account and move the finished application to another server when you are satisfied it is functioning to your satisfaction.

4. Having backup facilities in place that have already been tested means you can easily transfer a major web site to another web host if required. A temporary or permanent change can be made in the few minutes it takes to redirect the domain.

5. There are many outstanding web hosting companies available. One that is highly regarded is HostGator.com, which will allow you to host an unlimited number of domains, as does MeWebhost.com. Another well-regarded host that comes to mind - TeknonMedia.com - allows an unlimited number of subdomains, even with their lower cost packages. I have no connection with any of these, knowing them only by reputation.

The growth of Private Label Rights and niche market products, including promotional material and websites, has encouraged a boom in marketing to a huge range of niche interests. Market segments that were once considered too difficult to cater for are now easily accessible. This has also resulted in a huge growth in the number of websites now controlled, or likely to be controlled, by individual marketers. A workable strategy to administer this growth needs to be considered at an early stage - that is, before your "empire" becomes too difficult to manage and the costs excessive.

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Both Graeme Nichol & Ivan Kelly are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Graeme Nichol has sinced written about articles on various topics from Business Plan, Web Development and Web Development. Graeme Nichol Arcturus Advisors ()works with business leaders and their teams to close the gap between great strategies and mediocre r. Graeme Nichol's top article generates over 33100 views. to your Favourites.

Ivan Kelly has sinced written about articles on various topics from Search Engine Marketing, Internet Marketing and Marketing. . Ivan Kelly's top article generates over 33100 views. to your Favourites.